PenCom increases effort to make pension services seamless

Industry regulator, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has opened its North-East zonal office in Gombe State, as part of efforts to decentralize its activities and bring the commission closer to contributors and retirees.

The move PenCom said will reduce the need for contributors and retirees to travel from various parts of the country to Abuja to access the commission’s services.Besides, it is the sixth to be inaugurated among the commission’s zonal offices, in the six geo-political areas of the country.

Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo who declared the office open said that pension is a vital component of social security and an instrument for nation building.

He stated that it is therefore imperative for workers to be adequately sensitized and enlightened of their expectations after retirement and continue contributing to the sustainable development of the nation.

“Pension administration in Nigeria has experienced and continues to experience challenges, especially in the public. The most compelling of these challenges is inability of successive administrations to pay retirees their benefits as and when due”.

Dankwambo stated that the reform has restored credibility in the administration of pension system in Nigeria and strengthened the pension institutions,  adding that pension assets has accumulated from a deficit of N2 trillion at the time of the reform to about N5.74 trillion at present.

The governor however appealed to states that are yet to introduce the Contributory Pension Scheme to do so in order to avail themselves and their employees with the benefits of accessing funds generated by the scheme through issuance of development bonds.

Also, the Director-General of the commission, Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, reiterated that the opening of the North-East zonal will no doubt create the need awareness and further motivate the buy in of stakeholders towards advancing the tenets of the contributory pension scheme within the zone.

According to her, the commission embarked on the establishment of zonal offices in the six geo-political zones of the country to decentralize its activities and bring it closer to the contributory and retirees.

Speaking further, she said it is our expectation that retirees, active workers and other stakeholders will seize the opportunity provided by the existence of the zonal office to lodge their complaints, seek enlightenment and demand support as may be required from the National Pension Commission.

She called on all states and local government in the North-East zone that are yet to adopt or implement the CPS to immediately do so in order to avail their employees of the numerous benefits of the scheme, while avoiding huge future pension liabilities.